Chapter 5
Chapter 5, titled "Some Flowers Never Bend Towards the Sun", is the fifth chapter of The Cat Lady.__TOC__ Synopsis Apartment Susan returns to her apartment and Mitzi exclaims that she was worried sick about her, and asks if she's alright. Susan says she saw a monster in the fog (referring to Mitzi's childhood fear of being hunted by a monster in the fog). The women hug. While Susan is taking a bath, Mitzi knocks on the door and says she has an important question. She elaborates that she is making pancakes and would like to know what topping Susan wants on hers. Susan wonders why Mitzi is making food for her, and Mitzi answers it's because she cares about other people. The player can choose to express interest in having the pancakes or refusing them. Later in the kitchen, Susan says she's full, and asks where Mitzi learned how to cook. Mitzi proudly says she learned it from her dad, "the king of pancakes." Susan offers to do the dishes. Mitzi says she enjoys doing dishes because she's "a good girl", and it's a treat for Susan after all. On the laptop in the spare bedroom, Mitzi shows Susan a social networking site. Susan says she finds the idea of social networking stupid and would have no reason to tell other people about her ups and downs. Mitzi answers that maybe she will feel better for sharing it with her friends. Susan acutely points out that she doesn't have any friends, while Mitzi has two hundred and seventy-four. Mitzi replies that she's a likable person. Susan feeds the cats while Mitzi watches. Mitzi says she knows a song that she wants to play for Susan, called "All Flowers In Time Bend Towards the Sun". The next day, Mitzi announces to Susan that she created a profile for Susan on the social networking site. Mitzi suggests adding old colleagues and friends from school, but Susan said she probably didn't care about anyone enough to consider them friends. She reads, "Friends: 0", and says they got one thing right. Mitzi says she'll add Susan as a friend. The Building Map Later, after sitting down at the table for coffee, Susan shows Mitzi a map of the apartment building she drew last night. Mitzi is pleasantly surprised that Susan is going to help her find the Eye of Adam. They fill out the map together, attempting to find the correct flat. On the first floor, Susan sometimes hears a dog barking in Flat 2, which is opposite the vacant Flat 1. Susan hears Joe Davis and Ivy Davis arguing sometimes in Flat 3, although they both seem very friendly to Susan. Susan comments that Ivy is very thin and looks ill, like "a walking skeleton", and that when Joe shouts, he seems "like a different person". Susan assumes the couple have serious relationship problems. They used to have a cat named Lucipher. Susan and Mitzi live in Flat 4. On the third floor, an old man lives in Flat 5, and Bryan Palmer lives in Flat 6, directly above Susan and Mitzi. Susan notes that strange noises like shouting and gunfire come from Flat 7, which is on the top floor. A woman with a baby lives in Flat 8. Mitzi notes a baby pram she saw in the spare bedroom, and asks if Susan has kids. Susan doesn't want to talk about it, complaining that ten years of suffering was enough for her, and that she deserves some peace for once. Mitzi accidentally knocks Susan's favourite mug to the floor, but Susan says she doesn't care anymore, and to just leave it. Someone knocks on the door. Susan goes to answer it, and a man holding a hammer and a bunch of flowers steps into the apartment. He drops the flowers and crushes them. He walks towards Susan and knocks her out with the hammer. The camera pans to show Mitzi standing in the corner of the living room, staring in fear at the man. The Pier: Part 1 Susan awakes, and finds herself in a bizarre place. Part of the area looks like a pier with some abandoned ships, while part of the area has an industrial appearance. Outside, she finds a pier with a docked elevator-submarine that can transport her away; but there is a minimum requirement of two people to operate it. Skull Apartment To the left side of the lobby area, she enters a derelict version of her apartment, where the walls are skulls and the furniture is broken or missing. She discovers that she is trapped on both sides. She finds a knife under the rag on the table by the mirror, and pries open the mirror's back. In the secret compartment, she finds a key to the spare bedroom, and a lever. She pulls the lever inside the compartment, revealing the same mace from Chapter 2. She takes it and uses it to smash the walls trapping her. Entering the spare bedroom using the small key, she finds herself in the candle room in the Queen of Maggots' mansion. Materializing as an aged Susan, she blows out a candle, and witnesses an "accident" - a car crashing in a field. The Pier: Part 2 Returning to her skeleton flat, Susan heads back to the lobby and uses the code 384 on the padlocked door to open it, and discovers machinery similar to the shed machinery in her first trip to the land of the dead. The blood sacrifice seems to be the price again. Susan uses the lever and mace alternatively between the panels in order to lure the shadow version of herself to the machinery end of the room. The shadow Susan is killed by a saw-blade, paying the price required to activate the elevator. Susan stabs the fidgeting monster in the bathroom with the knife she got from the alternate apartment. The light goes out briefly. When it flickers back on, a drugged version of Susan, dressed in the hospital gown, hobbles behind the real Susan. They walk to the elevator-submarine dock on the pier and enter it. The elevator is gradually crushed by the water pressure, and Susan clutches her head in despair before the screen fades to black. Susan's Past: A tragedy Mitzi and Susan find themselves covered with tape in the bathtub. They try to escape, but to no avail. Susan begins tell Mitzi about a suitor who sent her flowers and phoned her frequently, even though she was married to Eric Ashworth, a taxi driver. Susan remembers how he sent one bouquet of beautiful lilies, which particularly mesmerized her. She usually threw away his flowers, but she was so entranced by them that it took her a while to realize the phone was ringing, and she realized it was her suitor calling. The scene turns to a flashback. Susan, in a red dress with her hair tied back in a bun, answers the phone. The player can choose to respond positively or reject the suitor. Rejecting the suitor with certain dialogue choices will award the achievement Nettles. Susan wants to put the flowers somewhere without Eric noticing, so she puts them in her baby Zoe's bedroom, on the window counter. She says to herself that she can tell Eric that Mandy, a friend, had brought them for Zoe; a seemingly innocent lie. Eric comes home, and he is very upset by an accident: a terrorist bombing took place near his taxi, and two cars smashed into the cab. He is stressed from the incident, and said he called Susan four times but she didn't answer. Susan tries to say that she was busy with the baby, but Eric says "it's the same old story." Eric drinks some wine. The suitor calls again, and Susan replies as if she were talking to someone else, because Eric is watching. Afterwards, Eric accuses Susan of being lazy while he works really hard to provide for the family. Susan argues that he never takes care of Zoe. As they argue, the present Susan's voice narrates that the couple didn't notice a thunderstorm starting outside. The window in Zoe's bedroom was open, and pollen from the flowers blew onto Zoe's crib. Unknown to both parents, Zoe had a rare flower pollen allergy, and had a severe allergic reaction thanks to the open window blowing the pollen towards her while Susan and Eric argued. By the time the parents found out, it was too late - Zoe did not survive from her allergic reaction to the flower pollen. Eric went missing shortly afterwards. The police found out that he had drunk himself to death in the woods and reported the matter to Susan a few days after Eric's disappearance. The Fourth Parasite The man with the hammer comes back and takes Mitzi out of the bathroom. Susan is distraught. After a while, the man unties Susan. Susan is confused, but she walks into the living room and sees Mitzi hanging from the ceiling, struggling to stay alive. The man — the fourth Parasite — gestures to the piano and howls at Susan. Susan takes this as a cue to play the piano. The cats come into the apartment. Seeing the intruder, they pounce on him and maul him. Susan quickly frees Mitzi, and tells her to look away from the sight of the cats mauling the man to death. Gallery Category:Chapters